Celtic Tiger

If we want a lean and more efficient public sector, why are the jobs pages littered with civil service positions?

Have you noticed the language used by employment agencies these days? Every dream job is exciting, attractive and offers a ‘‘once in a lifetime’’ opportunity to change your life. Every ideal candidate needs to be bright, creative and energetic.

In the past few days, football and economics have dominated the front and back pages of our newspapers. On the economic front, the talk has been about just how bad things might become in terms of the housing market, credit crunch and outsourcing.

After a few years of indebted instability, Iceland’s economy is set to undergo a short sharp shock. We are in for a much more protracted downturn. Exactly two years ago this weekend, this column focused on the strange and rapidly growing economy of Iceland. It seemed likely that, because the Icelandic economy was becoming rapidly…

Could one of the Irish banks meet the same inglorious fate as Bear Stearns? It’s unlikely, but not out of the question.

Am I the only person to have missed the left turn to Galway north on the M50? With typical disregard for locals, let alone foreigners, the NRA (or whoever is responsible for signage) puts a tiny sign signalling one of the country’s main transport arteries, not 100 metres, not 50 metres, not 10 metres but two metres from the turnoff.

On Sunday nights, ‘The George’ on Dublin’s George’s Street hosts a drag queen evening. Shirley Temple Bar, of telebingo fame, MCs the spectacle. The bingo is followed by a drag-fest, where wannabe drag queens get put through their paces. This might not be everyone’s idea of a night on the tiles, but research from the US indicates that shows like these are crucial to the economic fortunes of the nation.

It’s funny how an economic slowdown can crawl up on you – a missed fare here if you are a taxi man, falling tax take there if you are a revenue official, declining houses prices if you are a seller and ultimately, a P45 if you are a worker. Like a domino, one thing knocks into another and slowly but surely the links in the chain begin to reveal themselves. The headline figures, which seemed so impressive only this time last year, are not so stellar anymore.

Forty-three per cent of Ireland’s exports are dependent on the sexual urges, flabby boobs, thinning lips, laughter lines and crumpled foreheads of America’s millions of insecure baby boomers.

Spin masters continue to tell us that our economic fundamentals are sound, but they keep changing the fundamentals.

After the property gold rush, it’s now time for us to focus on small businesses in areas that make sense for the country’s economy.

The biggest lie doing the rounds here in the past few days – peddled by the same stockbrokers, estate agents, journalists and banks who told you that there would be a ‘‘soft landing’’ in the Irish property market – is that the collapse in Irish shares is merely a symptom of a greater global malaise. This is not true.

Anyone who doubted the severity of the property slump here only has to look at the shares of the Irish banks. Last night, they were all touching new lows.